Omega Institute of Bible, Theology and Apologetics

Engage: Tactics for Modern Times

Lesson 4

Dan McDonald Professor

Breaking down the Barriers Part 2

The Good Moral Man

Probably one of the most difficult groups of people to engage with the gospel are those who consider themselves to be in the group of the “good moral man.” The good moral man and woman do not have a proper understanding of who God is and the moral and ethical perfection of Jesus Christ. Often the good moral man and woman do not understand the holiness of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Holiness of the godhead (Father, Son, Holy Spirit):

The godhead is ontologically holy: this means that the godhead transcends creation; the godhead is not limited by creation, nor is the godhead confined to the boundaries of creation. Although the godhead interacts with creation, the godhead is separate from creation and has complete dominion over it. This is ontological holiness; IMPORATNAT NOTE: no human being possesses this!
The godhead is morally and ethically holy: this means that the godhead is morally and ethically PERFECT, and this perfection is continuous and had been since eternity past and will be for infinity. Jesus Christ, the god-man, was perfect in thought, word, and deed for his entire earthly life, even when tempted by Satan and was being mocked, harassed and scourged by the Roman soldiers, his thoughts, words, and deeds were perfect. IMPORTANT NOTE: no human being has, or ever will achieve this. This is what it means to be morally and ethically holy.

The good moral man or woman does not have a proper understanding of God’s standard of holiness as illustrated by the account of the rich young man, Mark 10:17-22 (Read)

The rich young man was a moral person from a man-ward vantage point; however, several factors come into play in this account:

Question #1

“What good thing must I “do” to obtain eternal life?”

Question # v16 reveals that in this man’s mind he was their (1) seeking affirmation from Christ, (2) seeking a debate with Christ, or (3) he was under the conviction that something was major was missing in his spiritual life, regardless of the fact that he considered himself to be a very moral person.

Question #2 Breaking down the Barrier of Self-Sufficiency

“Why do you call me good?”

Question # 2 displays the brilliance of Christ in His first step to break down the barrier of this young man’s “perceived” self- sufficiency. Although Jesus was and is good, Jesus by His own admission came to do the will of the Father and to glorify Him, latter the Father would glorify His Son because of His sinless perfection and perfect obedience at and in the cross.
With this question Jesus was probing the young man’s heart, although Jesus already knew the state of the young man’s heart, He was probing in order to lead the young man to engage in introspection; was Jesus just a fellow good moral man who would himself inherit eternal life by His good morals and benevolent works? Or was He indeed God in the flesh? Who was God? Did the young man think that good was God? Jesus wanted the young man to begin to think beneath the surface.

Answer # 1

“No one is good except God alone”

The answer announced in advance that the young man’s moral code was not good enough. It must be remembered that “good” is from God’s vantage point, not man’s:Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:12 (Read)

“You know the commandments…”

The young man may have “known” the commandments but he did not understand them, his answer to Jesus will make that evident.
A note of interest: the commandments that Jesus cites are the commandments that deal with man’s relationship to man, the meaning of these commandments go way beyond external acts of piety toward our fellow man.

Answer # 2

“I have kept all of these things from my youth.”

The young man demonstrates arrogance in a passive aggressive way: the young man displayed external piety toward Jesus by kneeling and calling Him “Good Teacher”, (passive), he was aggressive in that he approached Jesus with eagerness, but he was arrogant with his answer.
The answer given by the “good moral young man” revealed that the young man was trusting in his external piety and his wealth; he was self-reliant; and ultimately arrogant.
The young man wanted a big payoff from his self-reliant external piety; he wanted Jesus’ declaration that the young man’s own moral achievements were payment for an eternal life insurance policy.

Breaking down the Barriers

“One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Treasure in heaven is salvation, which is eternal life. William Hendriksen says: "' if life' means an active response to one's environment," then eternal life must mean an active response to that which is eternal, namely God's heavenly realm. Just as physical life is the ability to live and move and respond in the physical world, eternal life is the ability to live and move and respond in the heavenly world.

John MacArthur sates: Eternal life is first of all a quality of existence, the divinely-endowed ability to be alive to God and the things of God. The Jews saw it as that which fills the heart with hope of life after death. The unsaved person is spiritually alive only to sin. But when he receives Christ as Lord and Savior, he becomes alive to God and to righteousness.Rom. 6:1-13(Read). That is the essence of eternal life, the life of God's own Son dwelling within.
In order to receive eternal life Jesus directed His comments to the very crux of the man’s problem, self reliance on external piety, in addition, the solution to the problem presented by Jesus reveals that the man did not understand “love your neighbor as yourself.”
The young man went away sad because he wanted salvation on his terms, his terms were external piety and maintaining his riches, being rewarded for his human achievement, and thus he realized that he hadn’t kept the law.

According to Jesus, Piety Is Not Limited to the External, but also the Internal

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount leaves no room for receiving eternal life by external moral achievements, consider Matthew 5:21-48 (Read)

A Conversation with the “Good Moral Man”

Good moral man: well, I don’t see the need to go to church or be baptized, I am a good person.

Ambassador: well, Henry, can I ask you a question?

GMM: sure, go ahead.

AMB: What do you mean when you say good?

GMM: I don’t lie, I don’t cheat, I don’t steal, I don’t cheat on my wife, I pay my debts, I don’t cuss, I don’t smoke, drink, or gamble. That’s what I mean by good.

AMB: can I ask another question?

GMM: sure.

AMB: could I explain “good” from God’s perspective?

GMM: you mean good is different from God’s perspective?

AMB: yes it is.

GMM: how?

AMB: well in order for me to explain, I need to ask you a few more questions, could I do that?

GMM: sure.

AMB: you said that you don’t lie, what does that mean?

GMM: well it means just that, I am not a liar.

AMB: have you ever told a lie, ever?

GMM: well yes, I am sure that I have at some point.

AMB: well God’s says you shall not bear false witness, several places in God’s word he condemns lying, and not even one lie is excused by God.

AMB: so, by your own admission you have lied?

GMM: yes.

AMB: so what does that make you?

GMM: a sinner I guess.

AMB: no, that makes you a liar, which makes you a sinner.

AMB: you said that you have never cheated on your wife, is that right?

GMM: yes that is right! We have been happily marries for 29 years.

AMB: have you ever looked at another woman with lustful intent?

GMM: what is lustful intent?

AMB: have you ever fanaticized about having sex with another woman, ever?

GMM: come on man, that’s not the same as actually doing it!

AMB: please answer the question.

GMM: yes I have, but I would never do it.

AMB: Jesus said that if a man or a woman looks at another with lustful intention they have committed adultery in their heart.

AMB: so from Jesus’ perspective what does that make you?

GMM: a sinner I guess.

AMB: wrong, that makes you an adulterer, which makes you a sinner.

AMB: have you ever stolen anything?

GMM: I am not a thief!

AMB: have you ever taken anything that did not belong to you? Something as small as a pen, highlighter, or a blank CD from your company, anything like that ever?

GMM: my company could careless that I have taken pens home, or blank CD’s!

AMB: did you ask them if you could?

GMM: no it’s ridiculous.

AMB: not from God’s perspective, if you did not get explicit permission from the company to take even an ink pen that is theft in the eyes of God.

GMM: really?

AMB: yes, really.

AMB: well, have you ever?

GMM: yes.

AMB: what does that make you in the eyes of God?

GMM: a thief.

AMB: which makes you a sinner.

AMB: so, you’ve just admitted to being a liar, an adulterer, and a thief, and you are good from God’s perspective how?

GMM: look, I’m not gonna just stand here as you pass judgment on me.

AMB: I’m not; in fact I’ve got good news, there’s not a person in existence or ever has been, that is good from God’s perspective except for one, and that was the God-man Jesus Christ.

AMB: you see the laws of God; the Ten Commandments and God’s other laws were put in place to provide a moral framework for mankind to live by, and to show man how utterly sinful that he is from God’s vantage point.

Under what is called the old covenant, God through the law treated man with great fairness, if a person kept the law completely, from birth to death, then such a person would escape God’s penalty for being a law breaker, but if anyone broke the law at any point in his life, he or she must receive the penalty for his or her crimes, under this system, he or she was treated with fairness, that is to say, he or she would be treated according to his or her thoughts, words, and deeds.

No one could ever accomplish this no matter how moral one is according to man’s standards, so through Jesus Christ, God implemented the grace system of salvation, under this system the law system was turned on its head.

Under the grace system of salvation, those who accept Jesus Christ on God’s terms escape the penalty for their sin, because Jesus Christ, who kept the law with flawless perfection suffered the penalty for all law breakers, in order that complete acquittal for breaking God’s Law could be offered to mankind. This is the grace system of salvation, and all who accept God’s terms of receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and savior fall under the grace system. Would you be interested in hearing how you could accept Christ on God’s terms?

NOTE: IF THE PERSON SAYS YES, THIS IS THE POINT IN WHICH WHEN THE PLAN OF SALVATION IS PRESENTED AND EXPLAINED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!